“He is not the black version of a white man, he is David Alaba. Period.”
Spanish daily sports newspaper, Marca, has drawn criticism for an article about new Real Madrid signing, David Alaba, entitled “El Sergio Ramos negro”.
The Austrian defender has now been officially unveiled as a Madrid player after completing his free transfer from Bayern Munich, where he won 10 Bundesliga titles and two Champions Leagues.
He has inherited the number four shirt at the Bernabeu, vacated by Ramos when he completed his recent switch to Paris Saint-Germain.
An opinion piece by Carlos Carpio was published by Marca to mark Alaba’s unveiling, stating that the defender’s challenge having made the transfer from Germany was to become “the black Sergio Ramos”.
The choice of comparison – and the fact it was used to form the article’s headline – was condemned by many, who rightly pointed out how completely unnecessary it was to refer to the race of a player.
No one:
Absolutely no one:
Marca: I know, let's call David Alaba 'the black Sergio Ramos' 🥴🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/6iznOubc6S— Joe (@joe_in_espana) July 21, 2021
@marca you’ve known Alaba was coming for weeks and this is the best headline you came up with 🤦🏽♂️ would’ve been nice if one he’s not being compared to Sergio Ramos because they are completely different players and two he was referenced by his name and not his skin color 🤦🏽♂️ #Alaba pic.twitter.com/6iHD5boUli
— Brandon Robinson (@brobicoach) July 21, 2021
I don't know if this is the doing of the author or the social media admin, but this is awful. The new Ramos, Ramos 2.0 – fair enough. But to reduce Alaba to his skin colour? Disgraceful. https://t.co/duryXYoRG3
— Alex Brotherton (@alex_brotherton) July 21, 2021
What the fuck?! Both disrespectful and racist from Marca 🤦♂️ How does this get approved??
David Alaba is an incredible player in his own right, to compare him to Ramos is disrespectful for starters.. but to highlight his skin colour as the defining characteristic is tone deaf pic.twitter.com/kJ3FIgIUyy
— Harry says Free Palestine 🇵🇸 (@HKSaratov) July 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/Teyamade/status/1417867937441107972
He's a success in his own right! Why do they feel they need to compare a black person to a white person in order to give him kudos?
— Nilla (@nia_pia) July 21, 2021
